Press Release: Prizes and Awards
Evan Davis Chairs The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize 2010
Posted at 8:02AM Friday 05 Feb 2010
The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is one of the UK's most prestigious literary prizes. Worth £20,000 to the winning author, it is the 12th year of the prize which aims to reward the best non-fiction published in the UK, from biography, travel and popular science to the arts and current affairs. The panel for the 2010 Prize is announced today, 5 February. Chaired by Evan Davis, economist, journalist and BBC presenter, the panel consists of author and arts editor for the Financial Times, Jan Dalley; executive editor of The Times Daniel Finkelstein; science journalist, author and broadcaster, Roger Highfield; and best-selling historian Stella Tillyard. Davis comments, "When you think of all the English language non-fiction books that are published each year, narrowing the field down to one winner is a formidable challenge. In fact, it's such a large and exciting task, I'm telling my friends not to call me for the next six months." The worldwide reputation of the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize is such that the winning author may expect a significant increase in sales and recognition. The prize is open to authors of all non-fiction books published in the UK, regardless of nationality or of origin. The longlist, which features approximately twenty titles, will be announced in late-April. The shortlist of up to six titles will be announced in late-May. The judges will announce the winner of the Prize at an awards event in central London in early July. The winner receives £20,000, and each of the five shortlisted authors, £1,000. Former Winners 1999 Stalingrad by Antony Beevor (Penguin) 2000 Berlioz: Servitude and Greatness by David Cairns (The Penguin Press) 2001 The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh (Macmillan) 2002 Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 by Margaret Macmillan (John Murray) 2003 Pushkin: A biography by T.J. Binyon (HarperCollins) 2004 Stasiland by Anna Funder (Granta) 2005 Like a Fiery Elephant by Jonathan Coe (Picador) 2006 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro (Faber & Faber) 2007 Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Bloomsbury) 2008 The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury) 2009 Leviathan or The Whale by Philip Hoare (Fourth Estate)
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